Monday, May 21, 2012

Luke Haynes' show, "The American Context", in NYC

I am so thrilled that I was able to be in NYC in time to see my friend, and fellow AAQ board member, Luke Haynes, amazing show at the Eli Alexander Gallery. The show has since been taken down, but this was really, in my opinion, an important show.
Luke, by admission, is fairly new to traditional quilt piecing and patterns. In this show, he has done several things that I think are brilliant: he has taken his expert method of constructing large portraiture and overlaid these onto large quilts, pieced in traditional methods, but using cloth from deconstructed, recycled clothing.
Each quilt uses a classic pose borrowed from well-known American paintings. The figures are appliqued onto the traditionally-pieced quilts. The effect is simply mesmerizing.
The use of a wide variety of cloth types and textures gives a very unique sensibility to the quilts. My first thought was that these quilts were as close to the look of the Gee's Bend quilts as anything I have seen.
He utilizes a huge, old American flag, deconstructed and re-pieced, to create an enormous, beautifully worn-looking textured quilt.
Please enjoy a few of the images I captured when my daughter and I visited the gallery.